Let Thine Example

Let thine ex­am­ple

ho­ly John

re­mind us

Ere we can meet­ly sing thy deeds of won­der

Hearts must be chast­ened

and the bonds that bind us

Broken asun­der!

Lo! a swift an­gel

from the skies des­cend­ing

Tells to thy fa­ther what shall be thy nam­ing;

All thy life’s great­ness to its bit­ter end­ing

Duly pro­claim­ing.

But when he doubt­ed what the an­gel told him

Came to him dumb­ness to con­firm the sto­ry;

At thine ap­pear­ing

healed again be­hold him

Chanting thy glo­ry!

Oh! what a splen­dor and a re­ve­la­tion

Came to each mo­ther

at thy joy­ful leap­ing

Greeting thy mon­arch

King of ev­ery na­tion

In the womb sleep­ing.

Angels in or­ders ev­er­last­ing praise Thee

God

in Thy tri­une ma­jes­ty tre­men­dous

Hark to the pray­ers we

pe­ni­tents

up­raise Thee:

Save and de­fend us.